The initial puncture would have cost him about 10 seconds (spinning off, spinning around the point the right way, rejoining the track). also he had a bit more damage than hamilton so he would have been more careful on the way back to the pits.

Vettel setting the fifth fastest lap on the 37th lap of the race when the fourth fastest and the sixth fastest laps are on the 51st lap seems to be pretty amazing especially if you consider all the 3 podium winners went for new tyres around lap 42.

Because Rosberg was in clean air, while Hamilton wasn’t. If you look earlier, Hamilton was “dominating” SECTOR 2 AND 3, only Sebastian Vettel beat him in Sector 1, mostly by 2 tenths as I was live timing the race, but had Hamilton been in the lead, I am sure and unquestionably could have won that race, particularly how his speed was in SECTOR 2 AND 3. Webber as well, because it’s different when you chase a car and while you are driving in clean air. There’s your answer. ahahah :)

However Hamilton spent most of his time in the last two stints fighting back up through the field, and probably also with damage to his car from the tyre explosing , while Rosberg pretty much just had clear air

And considering Lewis more or less did his fastest time on tires that were 16 laps old, compared to the cars in front of him whose tires were 10-11 laps old. I wonder why Merc didn’t stack Lewis with Nico at the last SC period? He would arguably have had Fernando and Webber; unless he was past the pit entrance when the SC was deployed. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I think the drivers behind were very close, such that he would probably come out 16th if he pitted in reaction to the safety car, if i’m not wrong, and would not have had enough time to climb up the field. (see the lap chart)